Chupacabra

Description

MEDIUM: Oil on panel
IMAGE SIZE: 6.5" x 6.5"
OVERALL SIZE (INCLUDING 'FRAME'): 7.25" x 7.25" x 1.75"

“Phylis Canion, resident of Cuero, Texas, and a former hunter with African experience, along with some neighbors found road-kill near her farm in August 2007 that she believed was mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra. She kept the head of the beast in her freezer. On September 1, 2007 she showed the head of the beast to journalists and said that, "It is one ugly creature." The putative Texan chupacabra, whose head she had exhibited had big ears, large fanged [sic] teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin. Earlier Canion said that she had lost some chickens to wild animals recently. Canion based her premise that the animal that killed her chickens was not a coyote, but perhaps the vampire-like beast, because, according to her, chickens weren't eaten or carried off, but, blood was sucked off from them. The alleged sighting had triggered off an international and countrywide craze. Canion started selling $5 T-shirts that read: "2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas." both locally and to foreign countries.

The animal found by Phylis Canion was likely the Mexican Hairless Dog, a rare breed found in Mexico”

- This entry was taken from Wikipedia

My small painting was inspired by the desire people have to believe in supernatural or paranormal phenomena... The chupacabra is along the same lines as the Loch Ness monster, Ogopogo, Bigfoot, etcetera. The dog discovered by Canion was indeed just that – a DOG. It’s canine features are obvious and if one bothers to look up the aforementioned “Mexican Hairless Dog,” the conclusion then becomes obvious. Or, as in other cases, a coyote with severe mange offers up a more-than-reasonable alternative. But, alas, like any good superstition or fantastic story, people run into the hills, blurting boisterous nonsense until, say, a dead dog becomes a mythical, vampire monster.

I painted from one of the photos Canion released of the disembodied, frozen head of her ‘Chupacabra.’ Using a heavily loaded brush and dragging the paint into thick impastos, I tried to create more of a simplified icon out of a largely incidental dog’s head.

The photos of Phylis Canion’s ‘chupacabra’ are worth checking out, as the creature’s skin took on a very interesting texture and gloss after being frozen. Just do a Google search for “chupacabra” and she’ll be right at the top, holding her prized road kill.

NOTE: “chupacabra” translates, literally, to “goat sucker.”

Added on Aug 20, 2009